Thirteen days after Ryan Beale’s divorce was finalized, he had to deal with something even more heartbreaking — his brother’s suicide.

One year later, Beale of Huntington Woods realized he never fully coped with these events. Instead, whenever he started to feel anxious, he would jump online and search through social media. After all, looking at other people’s Facebook statuses distracted him from what was going on in his life.

And so he challenged himself not to go on Facebook for 40 days and, instead, spend that time reflecting on himself.

“I was ignoring confronting the grief. I noticed I was waking up in the morning. … Before I knew it, I was plugged in, checking what everybody else was doing on Facebook. I allowed myself to get more involved with what everybody else was doing,” said Beale.

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“We’re always chasing something, and we tend to lose sight of ourselves. ... A seemingly innocent addictive cycle can become dangerous because it distracts you from connecting to your core.”

Beale said these 40 days without social media allowed the relationships in his life to strengthen because, if his friends wanted to talk to him, they would have to call him or see him in person. It also allowed him to think about the tragedies he had gone through and made him reassess what he wanted for his future.

He wrote in a journal throughout those 40 days, and now he has turned that journal into a book — appropriately titled “Forty Days Off Facebook.” At the end of the book are 40 blank pages for readers to write their own thoughts.

He addresses several issues in his book, such as addiction, family problems, mental illness and, of course, social media.

Beale’s brother, Steve, took his own life at age 37 on Dec. 24, 2009, after 20 years of struggling with addiction.

Steve worked for the family-owned real estate business, the Beale Group, and was very well known in the community. Beale said more than 1,800 people attended Steve’s funeral service.

“My first reaction was, I couldn’t tell if it was a bad dream. I was in a zombie-state. I talked to my mom and asked, ‘Is this a dream or is it real?’ And she said, ‘It’s real, Ryan,’” Beale said. “His death affected a lot of people psychologically.”

He hopes his book will show people suffering from depression that they have a chance to renew their lives. He also hopes his book will make people contemplating suicide rethink this by showing what his family went through following his brother’s death.

It took two years for Beale to write the book following his 40-day challenge. And his life has completely changed in those two years.

During the 40 days, he met his now-wife Louise at a young singles professional event in Ferndale that his friend dragged him to. She asked if she could add him on Facebook, and he denied her.

“We couldn’t stalk each other on Facebook. ... In a normal scenario I would go look at all of her pictures, look at what she was doing, how she looked, who she was with. I would have a whole judgment before I really got to know the person,” said Beale. “We spent a lot of time during this period talking. We talked like we were in middle school, on the phone for hours.”

Beale and Louise were married in April 2012 in Israel at King David’s tomb, on top of Mount Zion. And now, Louise is eight months pregnant with their first child.

And, at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, Beale will celebrate the officially release of his first book on Tuesday, which is also the birthday of Beale’s brother, Steve — who he is dedicating his book to.

“(Steve) was very tough on me. He was my oldest brother, and he always pushed me to do something better,” Beale said. “When he passed away, there was a void of who was going to push me now. Who was going to challenge me? So me completing this book is a renewal of what he meant — pushing me to my dream.”

FYI

Huntington Woods resident Ryan Beale is promoting his book “Forty Days Off Facebook” from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Main Art Theatre, 118 N. Main St. in Royal Oak. His book is also sold on Amazon. For more information, visit 40daysoff.com.